Professional Documents
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Psychiatric Triage
Psychiatric Triage
Psychiatric Triage
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Director-General
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This Policy Directive may be varied, withdrawn or replaced at any time. Compliance with this directive is mandatory
for NSW Health and is a condition of subsidy for public health organisations.
POLICY STATEMENT
PURPOSE
An efficient triage framework is required to provide timely and equitable access to appropriate
mental health services in a consistent manner across the State.
This policy has been developed by the NSW Ministry of Health in collaboration with Local Health
Districts (LHD) / Health Networks. It defines mental health triage, the mental health triage
process and the Standards for NSW Health mental health telephone triage services. It also
briefly outlines the main roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders in supporting the
delivery of public mental health triage services.
The 1800 011 511 NSW Mental Health Line is a single number, state-wide mental health
telephone service operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is staffed by mental health
professionals. The Mental Health Line provides universal and equitable access to mental health
triage and referral to the most appropriate point of care.
The NSW Mental Health Line is one component of the State Mental Health Telephone Access
Line (SMHTAL) Program. The other component of the SMHTAL Program is to improve the
operation of public mental health telephone triage services so that they meet the Standards for
NSW Health mental health triage services (the Standards) (see section 12.3).
MANDATORY REQUIREMENTS
This policy applies to all public mental health telephone triage services operated by Local
Health Districts / Health Networks or their equivalent and by private providers contracted to
deliver mental health telephone triage services on behalf of Local Health Districts / Health
Networks.
This policy is underpinned by the National Standards for Mental Health Services 2010, in
particular Standard 10.2 Access: The mental health service is accessible to the individual and
meets the needs of the community in a timely manner; and Standard 10.3 Entry: The entry
process to the mental health service meets the needs of its community and facilitates timeliness
of entry and ongoing assessment, as well as the Standards.
Local Health District / Health Network policies, procedures, protocols, guidelines or other
documents relating to mental health triage must be consistent with this policy.
IMPLEMENTATION
The NSW Ministry of Health is responsible for the state-wide development and implementation
of the SMHTAL Program, including:
Providing the corporate governance structure for the SMHTAL Program.
Establishing and funding the 1800 number.
Marketing and communication of the SMHTAL Program.
Funding Local Health Districts/Health Networks to improve their mental health
telephone triage services so that they are able to meet the Standards and to support
the ongoing operation of the service.
Developing state-wide policies, protocols and operating guidelines relating to mental
health telephone triage.
Local Health Districts / Health Networks and Mental Health Services are responsible for the
clinical governance and local corporate governance of the triage policy and associated mental
health telephone triage service/s. This includes:
Implementing the State Mental Health Triage Policy.
Developing and implementing uniform operating procedures in line with State call
handling guidelines (refer Guideline Call Handling Guidelines for Mental Health
Telephone Triage Services GL2012_008)
Monitoring the operation of its mental health telephone triage service/s to achieve
the Standards and meeting Ministry of Health reporting requirements.
Ensuring staff undertaking the triage function receive relevant training and ongoing
support.
Ensuring adequate resource allocation for human resource costs, minor capital
works activity and other costs associated with the delivery of triage services.
Implementing routine evaluation and clinical practice improvement processes,
including complaint / incident management.
Communicating with stakeholders within the Local Health District/Health Network
about the operation of its mental health telephone triage services.
Clinical staff are responsible for reading, understanding and complying with the requirements
of this policy (Refer Section 2 Roles and Responsibilities for additional information).
REVISION HISTORY
Version Approved by Amendment notes
Month 2012 Deputy Director- New Policy
(PD2012_053) General, System
Purchasing and
Performance
ATTACHMENTS
1. Mental Health Triage Policy.
CONTENTS
1 BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 About this document ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Key definitions (for the purpose of this policy) ................................................................ 1
1.3 Aim of this document....................................................................................................... 1
1.4 Key principles .................................................................................................................. 2
2 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES......................................................................................... 2
2.1 NSW Ministry of Health ................................................................................................... 2
2.2 Local Health Districts / Health Networks ......................................................................... 3
2.3 Mental Health Telephone Triage Service Clinicians ....................................................... 3
2.4 Mental Health Clinician / Team Receiving Triage ........................................................... 4
3 THE TRIAGE PROCESS ........................................................................................................ 5
4 RISK ASSESSMENT .............................................................................................................. 6
4.1 Clinical Risk Assessment ................................................................................................ 6
4.2 Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment ......................................................... 7
5 COMPLETING THE TRIAGE DOCUMENT............................................................................ 7
6 CRISIS TRIAGE RATING SCALE........................................................................................ 10
6.1 Responding to Urgency of Response ........................................................................... 11
6.2 Crisis Triage Rating Scale / Urgency of Response Review .......................................... 12
7 CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION ............................................................................................ 12
8 REFERRAL PATHWAYS ..................................................................................................... 13
8.1 Mental Health Service ................................................................................................... 13
8.2 Emergency Department Referral General Hospital.................................................... 13
8.3 Health Service other than Mental Health ...................................................................... 13
8.4 Specialist Mental Health Services ................................................................................. 13
8.5 Managing callers from other Local Health Districts / Health Networks or other States
and Territories ....................................................................................................................... 14
9 MONITORING AND REPORTING........................................................................................ 14
10 RELATED DOCUMENTS ..................................................................................................... 15
11 REFERENCES...................................................................................................................... 15
12 APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................... 16
12.1NSW Health Mental Health Triage Module ................................................................... 17
12.2Crisis Triage Rating Scale............................................................................................. 19
12.3Standards for NSW Health Mental Health Telephone Triage Services......................... 20
12.4SMHTAL Reporting Template ....................................................................................... 21
1 BACKGROUND
1.1 About this document
In NSW: a new direction for mental health (June 2006), a commitment was made to establish a
24 hour state-wide mental health telephone advice, triage and referral service, staffed by mental
health clinicians and linked into the National Health Call Centre Network (agreed to by the
Council of Australian Governments). The NSW Ministry of Health developed the State Mental
Health Telephone Access Line (SMHTAL) Program to fulfil this commitment.
The aim of the SMHTAL Program is to facilitate access to appropriate mental health services by
the people of New South Wales.
The SMHTAL Program is being implemented via an Improvement Project. The Improvement
Project will facilitate access to appropriate mental health services through the establishment of a
1800 state-wide mental health telephone number operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (the
NSW Mental Health Line); and by improving the operation of Local Health District (LHD) / Health
Network mental health telephone triage services so that they meet state-wide performance
Standards.
NSW Health recognises that an efficient triage framework is required to provide timely and
equitable access to appropriate mental health services in a consistent manner across the State.
Alerts / Clinical Risk Assessment Alerts / clinical risk assessment is the process used to
identify and evaluate potential and imminent risk of harm to self and others.
Action Plan / Risk Management The formulation of the Action Plan should take into
consideration the clinical risk assessment and any other relevant information gathered during the
triage process.
Local Health Districts / Health Networks - The organisations within the New South Wales
public health system that provide public sector health services.
Mental Health Service refers to New South Wales public sector mental health services.
Funding Local Health Districts / Health Networks to improve their mental health telephone
triage services so that they are able to meet the Standards, and to support the ongoing
operation of the service.
Developing state-wide policies, protocols and operating guidelines relating to mental
health telephone triage.
Funding the development and delivery of standardised mental health telephone triage
training to mental health telephone triage clinicians.
Monitoring the performance of mental health telephone triage services to ensure they
conform to the Standards.
Monitoring and quality improving the operation of the SMHTAL Improvement Project.
Mental health clinicians undertaking the telephone triage function will be experienced mental
health clinicians with current registration or professional affiliation in the disciplines of nursing,
social work, psychology, occupational therapy. While there is no explicit definition of
experienced mental health clinicians, for the purposes of the SMHTAL Program experienced
means having at least three years experience working in acute mental health settings conducting
initial mental health assessments.
The NSW Health Mental Health Clinical Documentation triage module (triage module) must be
completed whenever it is indicated that the caller may need further mental health service
intervention, including but not limited to: referral to community mental health services or other
health provider, admission to a hospital, ongoing phone contact or gathering information for future
referral.
The triage module must also be completed when referring to another service such as:
Mental Health clinicians undertaking the telephone triage function must manage callers in line
with Local Health District / Health Network protocols, and must ensure that triage referrals are
forwarded to the most appropriate service within the Urgency of Response scale timeframe.
Mental Health clinicians will complete, but not be limited to, the State mental health telephone
triage training program or equivalent training programs, in addition to completing local orientation
and induction programs.
Mental Health clinicians will have access to appropriate supervision and will have ready access to
senior staff for consultation, training and support.
When there is a resource issue impacting on the ability of the receiving team to respond within
the Urgency of Response scale timeframe, this should be clearly communicated to the patient /
consumer and duly documented on the patients file. Refer to section 9.1, Responding to
urgency of response.
Clinicians receiving the triage referral are expected to complete a comprehensive assessment
within the urgency of response timeframe.
When a Mental Health Service provides a consumer with the 1800 011 511 NSW Mental Health
Line number as part of their treatment plan, the Mental Health Service must forward information
about the consumer, including a Consumer Wellness Plan, to the triage service.
Clinicians receiving the triage referral are expected to appropriately provide ongoing feedback
and evaluation regarding triage practices. Any concerns regarding the quality of the triage are to
be documented on the Incident Information Management System (IIMS).
Following this brief assessment, a recommendation for treatment and an interim management
plan is formulated including a response timeframe for those accepted for care in public mental
health services.
Triage can be completed for all prospective consumers, existing consumers whose condition may
have deteriorated and who require further assessment and intervention, and other service users.
Mental health triage can be conducted in person (face-to-face) or on the telephone. Telephone
contact is often more timely and convenient for many service users. Telephone triage has the
additional consideration of limited observation capacity, not being able to physically assess the
persons behaviour, mannerisms, body language, demeanour or distress.
Frequently referrals are made by third parties (concerned friends, carers, and health
professionals). Every attempt should be made to speak to the referred party in order to complete
the triage assessment process.
All triages are to be completed using the NSW Health Mental Health Clinical Documentation
triage protocol and module.
The triage clinician must collect and document sufficient demographic, social and clinical
information to determine whether there is a need, or potential need, for further intervention by the
Mental Health Service, particularly face to face follow up, or whether referral to another service
should be considered. The aim of the triage process is to obtain sufficient information from the
person making the referral (including self-referral) to:
4 RISK ASSESSMENT
4.1 Clinical Risk Assessment
Triage clinical risk assessment encompasses two components: initial alerts; and a specific clinical
risk assessment.
Alerts / risks identified are to be recorded on the front page of the triage document in the Alerts /
Risks section.
Clinical risk is rated as Low, Medium or High, and includes but is not limited to:
Alerts include:
A triage form must be completed whenever it is indicated that the caller may need further mental
health service intervention, including but not limited to: referral to community mental health
services or other health provider, admission to a hospital, ongoing phone contact or gathering
information for future referral.
All sections of the triage document must be completed. When it is not possible to gather all the
requisite information on the first point of contact, clinicians must document this on the triage
document.
Consumer demographics:
All consumer demographic details should be completed. This information is essential for current
and future contact with the consumer. It must be noted if the consumer is a current client of
mental health services.
Alerts / Risks:
Any alerts / risks identified during the triage must be clearly documented, including examples /
evidence, and summarised in this section. Some examples: High risk for suicide, Child at risk,
Fire risk smokes in bed.
Alerts identified during the triage must be addressed in the Action Plan.
Triage Details:
Includes date, time, location, communication issues, referrer details and reason for referral.
Location refers to the place where the triage is delivered and is described at Ward, Clinic, or Unit
level, e.g. emergency department.
Location and Site information complement each other - for example an ambulatory mental
health facility can be described as:
Site: XYZ Community Health Centre, Location: Adult Mental Health.
Communication issues includes issues such as preferred language required or cultural and
gender considerations or any sensory impairment. If an interpreter is required, then the preferred
language should be noted, for example, Arabic interpreter is required. Where cultural issues are
present, a brief summary should be noted, for example: Cultural issues may be present,
Aboriginal Liaison Officer may be required.
History:
History of mental illness or disorders (including Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of
Dementia (BPSD)), family history of mental illness or disorders and past treatments, experience
of torture and trauma (post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)). If there are problems that may be
BPSD, family history of dementia is relevant. History of treatment/s including any alternative,
traditional or culturally relevant treatments.
Medical Issues:
Medical history of significant illness, drug reactions, current medical concerns. Consider whether
any issues suggesting delirium may be present (e.g. especially in older people; sudden onset of
change in behaviour, cognition, or ability to care for self, fluctuating symptoms or level of
alertness, possible acute medical problems).
Current Treatments:
Service providers, prescribed medication, therapy. Have these had any effect or side effects? Is
GP aware of, or supporting the referral? If possible BPSD, have any triggers been identified, or
behavioural strategies attempted?
D & A use:
Past and current (include current intoxication), treatment, type substance, frequency.
If a carer or support person is present, it is important to check with that person that they are
capable of providing the support to the consumer for the level of distress the consumer is in until
the mental health service is able to make face-to-face contact with the consumer.
Possible Risks
Thoughts of harming self and / or others, neglect, at risk behaviours, acute medical illness.
All tick boxes in this section of the triage document must be completed.
Overall Risk
Suicide, violence and other risks including child safety, self-harm, absconding, exploitation,
domestic violence, abuse, neglect, environmental risks.
Summary:
Formulation of presentation including reason for referral, current reported concerns, risk issues,
and indications for further assessment and treatment.
Action Plan:
Action plan / interventions includes assigning the Urgency of Response and an overview of all
services provided and follow up services being arranged during triage process. Include any
actions initiated that address risks and needs previously identified. Include details of interim
management plan negotiated with the caller.
Contacts:
Clinicians should document details of any communications undertaken during the triage to
identify any corroboration undertaken, as well as provide contact details to aid any subsequent
communication. The prompts provided in the 'Contacts' table are not meant to be definitive or
exhaustive and provision is made for clinicians to specify Other contacts.
The scale evaluates the consumer according to three factors: (1) whether they are a danger to
themselves or others, (2) their support system, and (3) their ability to cooperate.
The CTRS is available to assist decision-making regarding the determination of the UoR at triage
once the clinician has gathered ALL the required information and has made the determination
that a consumer requires mental health care. The guidelines regarding the completion of the
UoR is that the clinician should use ALL available information (including the assistance availed
by the CTRS), to inform their decisions regarding the UoR and the resulting action plan. A
clinician can make a decision on the UoR on the basis of available information, without having to
use the CTRS.
Rating A: Dangerousness
Ascertainment guidelines
The clinician may make the rating following a brief assessment over the telephone. It is
recommended that if the score is equal to or less than 9, the response to a client is of extreme
urgency and should be followed with appropriate indication on the urgency of response scale and
appropriate action. Note that if in residential aged care, Rating B can still be in range 2 to 5.
Scores are:
A. Dangerousness = ____________
Category A = 39
B. Support System = ____________ Category B = 10
Category C = 11
Category D = 12 13
C. Ability to Cope = ____________
Category E = 14 15
Category F = NA
Triage Rating (A+B+C) = ____________
Category G = NA
The CTRS is a brief rating scale developed to screen emergency psychiatric consumers rapidly.
It differentiates between consumers who require hospitalisation from those who are suitable for
outpatient crisis intervention treatment (Bengelsdorf et al., 1984) subsequently determining
required level of response.
The following minimum action / interventions have been compiled to assist the triage clinician
respond to consumer / referrer needs:
Category B High Urgency: See within 2 hours / present to Psychiatric Emergency Service or
Emergency Department in General Hospital (e.g. acute suicidality, threatening violence, acute
severe non-recurrent stress).
Category C Medium Urgency: See within 12 hours (e.g. distressed, suicidal ideation of
moderate to severe nature, disturbed behaviour).
Category D Low Urgency: See within 48 hours (e.g. moderate distress, has some supports in
place but situation becoming more tenuous).
The receiving mental health team at the time of referral, will be responsible for follow up of
non-presenting consumers, e.g. consumer fails to present to Emergency Department or is not
present on home visit.
There may be occasions when the receiving mental health team is unable to respond within the
assessed UoR timeframe. In these instances it is the responsibility of the Mental Health Service
to ensure that local processes are in place to manage and support the consumer until such time
as the local mental health team is able to assume responsibility and make face-to-face contact
with the consumer.
The key principle is to ensure, as much as is practicable, that the consumer is safe until face-to-
face contact is made by the local mental health team clinician.
7 CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION
Mental health care is especially dependent on good clinical documentation.
Clinicians must complete the Ministry of Health Mental Health Clinical Documentation Triage
document, or equivalent electronic medical record file.
All records of calls, including clinical documentation, form part of the patients medical record and
can be used in courts of law.
The use of the triage document should always be guided by the clinicians informed judgement
regarding the consumers clinical status and needs at the time.
The bottom of every page of the triage document must be signed off by the clinician completing
the document including the name (PRINT), signature, designation (PRINT) and date.
If a section is unable to be completed, the clinician should document why the information has not
been collected. For example, the clinician can document that the information was unavailable at
triage. If the information was not available at the time of triage, clinicians should document any
follow up actions planned to obtain that information.
Clinicians must also meet other requirements of record keeping as outlined by:
8 REFERRAL PATHWAYS
8.1 Mental Health Service
The Mental Health Service must identify clear referral pathways that facilitate adherence to
achieving CTRS and UoR and standardise clinical information so that it can be shared across
multiple sites, where applicable.
Pathways should include linkages to the NSW Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory
Service (DBMAS) State Telephone Assistance Line 1800 699 799; and Mental Health DBMAS
and / or Behavioural Assessment and Intervention Services (BASIS).
In the event that a child, young person and their family has been identified as being at risk of
harm, it is important to engage with services that provide advice on the need for statutory child
protection intervention (Child Wellbeing Units), or services that can assess the needs of
vulnerable children, young people and families that present with complex issues (Family Referral
Services).
Services must be aware of local interpretation of Ministry of Health Guideline GL2006_013 that
defines a collaborative role for NSW Health Aged Care services and SMHSOP for older people
who present with severe behavioural or psychiatric symptoms associated with dementia or other
long-standing organic brain disorder and would be optimally managed with input from SMHSOP.
This may include people who are deemed at risk of harm to themselves or to others. Symptoms
may include:
major depression,
severe physical and / or verbal aggression,
severe agitation,
screaming,
psychosis.
The availability of specialist cross cultural clinical consultants is aimed at addressing these
complexities and facilitating culturally responsive early intervention for the purpose of increasing
service use, compliance and improved clinical outcomes. Use of specialist assessment tools
developed for indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse populations are used for
determining appropriate referral pathways for clients.
8.5 Managing callers from other Local Health Districts / Health Networks
or other States and Territories
All callers to a Local Health District / Health Network mental health telephone triage service are
handled at the first point of contact and will receive a triage (using the NSW Health Mental Health
Clinical Documentation Triage module) and a risk assessment.
If there is an immediate risk, emergency services are to be activated to take the person to a place
of safety where a comprehensive mental health assessment can be conducted.
If the situation does not require an immediate 000 response, the completed triage document is to
be made available to the relevant Local Health District / Health Network mental health telephone
triage service immediately and the receiving service must be advised by telephone that the triage
referral is being forwarded. All Local Health District / Health Network MHTTS have a landline
number, details of which are available to all Local Health District / Health Network MHTTSs.
Callers who are making general enquiries and are not seeking assistance for themselves or
others may not require referral to their local service but must be treated appropriately and
provided with appropriate information.
Opportunities to identify the experience of consumers, carers and other users of the service,
including the appropriateness of the response process are acknowledged as important elements
of ongoing performance monitoring processes.
All Local Health Districts / Health Networks are required to provide routine reports to the NSW
Ministry of Health via the Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Office, as set out in the SMHTAL
Reporting Template (see Appendix 12.4), at three monthly intervals, which report on the
operation of their mental health telephone triage service in complying with the Standards.
10 RELATED DOCUMENTS
2003: NSW Police Force Disclosure of Information by Health Professionals version 1.2 March
2003.
2005: NSW Health Suicidal Behaviour Management of Patient with Possible Suicidal Behaviour
PD2005_121.
2006: NSW Health Interpreters - Standard Procedures for Working with Health Care Interpreters
PD2006_053.
2006: NSW Health Identifying and Responding to Domestic Violence. See also Policy and
Procedures for responding to Domestic Violence PD2006_084.
2006: NSW Health Child Protection Roles and Responsibilities- Interagency PD2006_104.
2007: NSW Health Aboriginal Mental Health and Well Being Policy 2006-2010 PD2007_059.
2008: NSW Health Mental Health Clinical Documentation Redesigned Guideline GL2008_016.
2010: NSW Health Keep Them Safe Making a Child Protection Report IB2010-005.
2011: NSW Health Provision of Services to People with an Intellectual Disability & Mental Illness -
MOU & Guidelines PD2011_001.
11 REFERENCES
Auditor Generals NSW (2005) Auditor Generals NSW Report Performance Audit Emergency
Mental Health Services NSW Department of Health [The Audit Office of New South Wales].
Broadbent, M., Jarman, H., & Berk, M., (2002). Improving competence in emergency mental
health triage, Accident and Emergency Nursing, 10, 155 162.
Erdman, C. 2001. The Medicolegal Dangers of telephone Triage in Mental Health Care. The
Journal of Legal Medicine, 22:553-579.
Happell, B., Summers, M., & Pinikahana, J. (2002). The triage of psychiatric patients in the
hospital emergency department: a comparison between emergency department nurses and
psychiatric nurse consultants. Accident and Emergency Nursing, 10, 65 71.
Happell, B., Summers, M., & Pinikahana, J., (2003). Measuring the effectiveness of the national
Mental Health Triage Scale in an emergency department. International Journal of Mental Health
Nursing 12, 288-292.
Kevin, J., (2002) An examination of telephone triage in a mental health context. Issues in Mental
Health Nursing, 23:757-769.
National Institute of Clinical Studies (2006) Victorian Emergency Department Mental Health
Triage Project August 2005 March 2006, National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) &
Victorian Department of Human Services.
NSW Health (2004) Your guide to MH-OAT Clinicians reference guide to NSW Mental Health
Outcomes and Assessment Tools, NSW Health North Sydney.
NSW Health (2005) Clinical Services Redesign Program (CSRP) Emergency Mental Health
Project (CSRP-DOH-05-003) Statewide Mental Health Project Final Report [Accenture & NSW
Health].
NSW Health (2006) GL2006_013 Service Plan for Specialist Mental Health Services for Older
People (SMHSOP) 20052015 NSW Health North Sydney.
Sands, N. (2004) Mental health triage nursing: an Australian perspective. Journal of Psychiatric
and Mental Health Nursing 11, 150155.
Sands, N., (2007) Mental health triage: towards a model for nursing practice, Journal of
Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 14, 243249.
12 APPENDICES
12.3 Standards for NSW Health Mental Health Telephone Triage Services
1) Callers across NSW are able to access mental health (MH) services by calling a one
number, state-wide MH telephone triage service. This service is to operate 24/7.
2) Mental Health Telephone Triage Service (MHTTS) operators are experienced MH
clinicians who are appropriately trained in conducting standardised telephone mental
health triage and have a working knowledge of the operating protocols of the service.
3) MHTTS operators have, when possible, access to the history and recent status of current
and past clients of the MH service and access to resources about referral points. In the
interim and as a minimum, MHTTS operators are to have access to a record of clients
previous contact with the MHTTS.
4) Each MHTTS is governed by detailed local polices and operational protocols which can
be reliably interpreted.
5) Each MHTTS systematically monitors the accuracy of the telephone triage decision.
6) Each MHTTS is integrated with local services and permitted to mobilise emergency
assistance, and local MH assessments within the specified urgency of response
timeframe.
7) Each MHTTS is able to:
a. Provide advice and information relating to the availability of public or private MH
services.
b. Provide direction to callers who raise non-MH concerns.
8) Each MHTTS conducts routine quality monitoring and improvement processes.
Performance against standards, complaints monitoring and outcomes, benchmarks and
other quality improvement activities made publicly available.
9) Each MHTTS is subject to sophisticated cost and output determination to determine its
efficiency.
10) Calls to MHTTS are answered promptly. Benchmark figures are set for:
Maximum Speed to Answer Not more than 1% of calls wait more than 2 minutes
(MSA) prior to being answered by a MH clinician. The 1%
standard will be consistently achieved regardless of
time of day or day of week.
(The time to answer a call is measured from the time
the call starts ringing to when it is answered by a MH
clinician; not from the time a call is answered by a voice
recording or placed in a queue).
Call Abandonment rate Not more than 5% of calls are abandoned. A call is
abandoned if the caller terminates the call having
waited at least 10 seconds from the completion of an
announcement message.
1 Call Activity
(a) In-call volume x month
Only includes calls received by the LHD / Health Network Mental Health telephone triage
service from the 1800 011 511 NSW Mental Health Line.
(b) Calls received (i.e. call volume abandoned calls) per month
(c) Calls received during business hours (i.e. 8.30am 5pm M to F)
(d) Calls received outside business hours
(e) Average duration of calls
Comments
i. Grade of Service
(70% of calls answered in 30 seconds averaged over a calendar month)
Comments
3 Quality Monitoring
(a) Complaints
Number of complaints x Source of Complaint (e.g. Client / Carer, GP, MH staff, Other
Health staff, Emergency Services, Other) x Month
Briefly describe the more serious or common complaints received and how they were
resolved
(b) Incidents
Reporting and resolution of incidents. (Incidents should be reported in IIMS)
Number of incidents x IIMS SAC Severity Rating x Month
Briefly describe the more serious incidents or common incidents and how they were
resolved